Tag Archives: business

April 9, 2013 · 9:45 am

The View From The Bench

Great game played by Michigan and Louisville last night in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.  It was everything a championship game should be for the most part: great action, close scoring, and some interesting story lines.  I wish that two things had been different   the officiating had been better (both teams got screwed on a number of incorrect calls) and that the Wolverines had won.  However, besides an excellent evening’s entertainment, I got something else out of the game I’d like to share.

Stretching before the 2006 NCAA Men's Division...

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Two players – Luke Hancock and Spike Albrecht – were the stories of the game in many ways.  When Michigan’s star guard got into early foul trouble, Albrecht came off the bench and scored 17 points before halftime.  For a kid who averaged under 2 points a game, that’s quite a performance.  Hancock went him one better with a performance off the bench that was so good he became the first non-starter to be named Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.  Both players made an excellent business point which is today’s thought.

There are a dozen players on a basketball team and yet only five play at once.  Generally the rotation of players, barring foul trouble or injury, isn’t more than seven.  Still, every person on the bench needs to stay ready.  Every sport has a crew of backup players – those who, for one reason or another, don’t play as much on game day but are integral parts of the team.

It’s the same in business.  Every person on the team needs to understand the game plan and keep their skills sharp even if the plan isn’t for them to be the main players that day.  I wanted “bench” players on my business team who understood that their job went beyond the time when they were front and center.  When you’re out of a game for a spell, your job isn’t to rest.  You have a wider perspective – you can see the entire floor or field.  Help your team with your observations.  For business, this means, for example, reading drafts of presentations carefully and offering suggestions  not sitting around pouting because you’re not the one giving the show.  Who knows – like Albrecht and Hancock, you might get a chance when you least expect it.   Be ready – the chance may not come a second time.

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April 8, 2013 · 11:06 am

Important Isn’t Always First

Suppose you wanted to build a business.  It would be important to have an excellent business plan and hire great people to execute that plan.  Finding great candidates and getting them on board would, therefore, be important too.  But suppose you wrote up your plan and hired those people.  Where would they work?  How would people communicate with them under the auspices of your business?  How would you collect and distribute money?  Before you hired, you’d want to set up the legal entity that is your business, establish a domain name, and set up an email system.  Important isn’t always first.

Business Sign X

(Photo credits: http://www.roadtrafficsigns.com)

Let me give you another example.  Suppose you come up with a great idea – a music player that can hold thousands of songs and can fit in your pocket.  In 1998, the first MP3 players came out, but it wasn’t until 2001 – when the first iPod came out – that they took off as consumer must-haves.  Why was that?  Because the iPod got it right – they married the player up to excellent software and fabulous aesthetics.  In this case, getting it right was more important than being first.  I’d argue, however, that the first thing one should do when designing a new product or service IS to make it great – I’m not a huge fan of the “get something out then pivot” school.  Fast is important to investors in a lot of cases.  First, create something excellent.

Many people fail to recognize that distinction in the heat of battle.  We all have a tendency to prioritize based on what seems important without  thinking as much about what needs to be first.  It is a frustrating process when what seems important is delayed by what needs to come first but that’s how we produce greatness right out of the box.

A final example.  If you were trying to write a book, you’d have to think about things like tone, tense, and even where to start.  Those things come before what’s important – the writing, the plot, the character development, and maybe even the ending.  The mechanical details of a lot of what we try to do might seem boring, but without them there is no foundation for what really is important both in business and in life.

Does that make sense?

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April 4, 2013 · 11:11 am

Are You A Middleman?

I was having lunch yesterday with a business friend and he remarked on some new eyeglasses I’d recently bought.

eyeglasses

(Photo credit: Lynn Kelley Author)

I told him about the purchase process and how the next time I bought some new specs (these were an emergency purchase due to a misplaced foot) I’d be doing so online. I talked about Warby Parker and how they are selling high quality frames and lenses for under $100. I went on to talk about an article in the Times this week on how there were companies like W/P who are cutting out the middlemen in areas such as bedding (Crane and Canopy), office supplies (Poppin), nail polish (Julep), tech accessories (Monoprice), men’s shoes (Beckett Simonon) and shaving supplies (Harry’s).

As I drove back from lunch I thought about how that process really should raise a question for each of us and every business:  what value are we adding?  The reason the above companies are successful is that they’re offering the same high-quality products at lower prices by cutting several layers out of the business transaction.  Obviously, if the quality of the end-product remains the same, all of those layers were adding nothing of value but were adding to the costs.

Disintermediation is probably the biggest effect the internet has had over the last twenty years.  It’s not just in the retail chain either.  Video on demand services such as Netflix cut out the local video store.  The ability for program creators to access audiences directly has cut out distributors such as TV networks and even cable systems.  The easiest way for any of the middlemen to remain a part of the equation is for them to define the value they bring to the sale and make that value very apparent.  This is true, perhaps even more so, if you’re in a service business.

There is a tendency to think that the technology is simply making things more efficient.  If clarifying the value chain means “efficient” then I guess I agree.  If you are a middleman of any sort, you need to be doing that clarification yourself, both internally and externally.  Does that make sense?

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